


Give Me One Good Movie Kiss And I'll Be Alright

by thegirlwiththeprettybrowneyes



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Kiss cam, Kissing, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 22:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15917823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwiththeprettybrowneyes/pseuds/thegirlwiththeprettybrowneyes
Summary: Andrew didn't respond. He was looking at the jumbotron. Neil turned to see what was so interesting. On it were two figures conversing on a bench. One of the figures was short and muscular, while the other was slightly taller and leaner“Andrew. I might be wrong here, but I think we’re on the kiss-cam.” Neil observed.“It would seem so.” Andrew said./////////////////Okay so hear me out what if Exy games had Kiss Cams





	Give Me One Good Movie Kiss And I'll Be Alright

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I wrote this in a few hours, half asleep, and through a terrible cold because I had the idea and I needed to get it onto digital paper before I forgot it. Halfway through, I switched tenses and had to go back and change every instant of present tense into past tense. Needless to say, please take my syntax and grammar with a grain of salt, as I am posting this before I pass out. Thank you and enjoy.

It was Neil and Andrew’s anniversary. Neil thought it was poetic that they were spending their eighth year together doing what had started their relationship.

Hitting things with exy racquets.

(Andrew thought it was stupid but Neil didn’t care, it was poetic)

He was playing Andrew’s team, the Sharks. The game was hard and the teams were still tied when halftime was called. When the buzzer sounded, Neil barely heard it. He was in the middle of his ten paces when he realized that the backliner that was marking him had stopped. Neil stopped, looked around, stretched out, and headed to the locker room. 

Laura Michaelson, a veteran teammate, gave Neil a friendly bump on the way in.

“Too wrapped up in it all, small-fry?” 

“Not wrapped up enough, light post?” He quipped back. Laura was not particularly tall, but she had a good half-foot on Neil. She very maturely stuck her tongue out at Neil and continued on her way.

The locker was a warm, sweaty melee of different strategies being suggested and trying to drink enough water to replace everything they’d lost as sweat and energy on the court. 

Neil only had one thing to say about it. Diyoza needed to be offensive dealer this half.

Adrien Diyoza was a relatively new addition to the team, but he was an undeniably hard worker. He was built tall and broad, and so was perfect for a backliner. Neil couldn’t help him much at practice, but at night practice (old habits die hard), Neil had been giving him some pointers.

Coach Wright put up her hand and silenced the room.

“All right, guys let’s try and decide on a line-up for next half so we can all get out in time to support whatever act they chose for halftime.”

Neil never really got into all the halftime stuff, it wasn’t his thing, but sometimes a cool local band or performance group would come in and do something for a small show, and besides, when he was playing Andrew, he had time to go talk to him. He had downed a bottle of water in the halftime room, when he heard the telltale chimes of the kiss-cam. Swati Kumar, a friend of his, a backliner, sighed happily.

Swati was a very strange person to Neil, because she managed to be the single most punk-rock person he knew while also being incredibly, for lack of a better word, wimpy. She had tattoos and piercings aplenty, but she couldn’t stomach scary movies. She enjoyed leather jackets and angry, loud music, but she screamed louder than anyone whenever she saw an insect larger than an eyelash. And she was also the most hopeless romantic Neil had ever met.

“I love the kiss cam. It’s just so sweet,” She said.

Neil rolled his eyes and found himself, yet again, putting things into perspective for her. “Kissing your significant other, or a total stranger, while hundreds of strangers watch?” Neil countered. “Yeah, real sweet, Kumar,”

Swati placed her hands on her hips, which looked slightly ridiculous under all her bulky padding. “Hey, my sister met her boyfriend because they kissed at an exy game, I was in high school, it was one of the reasons I started playing.”

Neil nodded, taking in her answer “Uh-huh, and when did they break-up?”

Neil couldn’t see it under her helmet, but he could feel Kumar rolling her eyes “They got married, dipshit”

“Oh.”

Kumar snorted and wave him off. “Yeah ‘oh’, now go find your man before you say something like that to someone who doesn’t like you as much as I do.”

Neil bowed like a knight “Yes, milady,” Then he turned and ran off to find Andrew.

* * *

 

(two years earlier)

Neil thought that the Minyard-Josten rivalry was the funniest thing that he had ever heard of in his entire life. When Allison, as she did with every article that mentioned Neil or Andrew, sent him the first article (These College Teammates Have Deep Bonds- But Not the Kind You Think!), Neil was worried that people knew they were dating. Not because he didn’t want anyone to now, but because he knew that Kevin would never let him hear the end of it, and Exy reporters would talk about what they most wanted to talk about: Anything Except Exy. 

Then Neil had read the article and laughed so hard that the cats came in from the other room to make sure he was alright. Neil had spent half an hour reading and re-reading quotes aloud from the article to Andrew.

“Every player has a bit of a competitive spirit, and this paper has covered countless inter-player rivalries,” Neil laughed “But the passionate hate that Andrew Minyard and Neil Josten bring to the game puts all of them to shame. The sparks in their eyes, the tenseness of their muscles, Josten’s devilish grins whenever he looks at Minyard. Every one of these things is indicative of the undeniable loathing between these two former teammates,” Neil had read that one about five times, and still couldn’t make it through the excerpt without breaking out in laughter.

Andrew hadn’t laughed when Neil enthusiastically showed him, but he had given Neil the look that meant he was coming up with a plan.

 

The first time their teams played each other after the article came out, Neil’s team won. After the initial celebration, Andrew had pulled off his helmet and shouted at Neil in Russian.

“Hey, junkie, what are we doing for dinner?”

Neil was confused as to why Andrew was yelling in Russian, or yelling at all, but he removed his own helmet and responded in kind. “Whatever you want, I chose last time,”

Andrew huffed and shook his head, replied in English. “I’m going to make you regret that.” (Which Neil assumed meant they were going to have ice cream for dinner again), then walked back in with his team. 

 

It wasn’t till Kumar cornered him in the locker room that he realized what Andrew had done.

“Are you okay, what was Minyard yelling at you? He sounded really angry.”

“What, Andrew? He was just asking where we were going for dinner?”

Swati paused. “You’re going to dinner.”

“Yes?”

“With Andrew Minyard,”

“Yes?”

Swati paused again. “Like a date?”

“Something like that,”

Swati paused once again “Figures,”

 

It wasn’t only Swati who had noticed. The next day, Allison had sent him another few articles. All along the same vein: “We Thought The Minyard-Josten Rivalry Was Tabloid Bull, But There Might Actually Be Some Truth to the Story!” And to Neil’s delight, they were all hilarious.

Most times when Neil thought something was funny in the press, his publicist told him it was a bad idea, so Neil was surprised to see that he was being asked, and even encouraged, to push the Minyard-Josten rivalry as far as it would go.

And so he did. Angry sounding shouts in Russian and German that were really just “Hey how was your day?” or “What did you want me to get from the store, again?”, vague (but completely true) answers to the press that made it seem like they were bitter enemies, some soundbites from Matt and Dan about what they were like in college, and the Minyard-Josten rivalry was as essential a part of exy-watching as the actual game.

What Neil found most hilarious, however, were the  _ shippers _ . Hundreds of thousands of shippers who though that Andrew and Neil, under different circumstances, would  _ make a good couple _ . And some people  even shipped Kevin and Andrew which had made Neil laugh so hard that Kevin didn’t talk to him for a month. Granted, Neil had sent Kevin a link to 15  _ Reasons Kevin Day and Andrew Minyard Are Couple Goals _ along with a message that read ‘wow kevin i cant believe ur stealing my man’. In retaliation, Andrew had brought over, then refused to share, 15 trays of baked goods from their neighbor Beth, who stress-baked when her college workload got too high to handle/.

Neil didn’t think they were funny because they had guessed the truth of things, he thought they were funny because they were so thoroughly convinced that they hadn’t guessed the truth of things. Almost every post or fan-article held some variation of “okay, I know they aren’t dating, but imagine if they were” 

Every Exy fan was on one side or the other. Hell, even Exy players took part. One time, Diyoza wore a Team Minyard shirt out in public because he was mad at Neil for making him do so many drills, and journalists speculated whether or not Diyoza was switching to the sharks for a month.

So the press had their fun, the publicists got their payday, and Neil got some fun reading. Neil wasn’t exactly sure what Andrew got out of it, but he never said anything to stop it.

Neil was waited a few months, then also turned up in the public eye with a Team Minyard shirt on to really drive the tabloids wild.  

The shippers didn’t stop mentioning it. 

* * *

 

(present)

Andrew was also gearing up in his locker room. The sharks turned to Neil as soon as he entered the room. The newbies glared, as Neil was an enemy player, the veterans smiled and waved, as Neil was Andrew’s boyfriend, and the oldest ones…

Neil was immediately wrapped into a hug and a noogie by Harvey “Denter” Denton and Laney ‘Lightning” McQueen respectively. They had played with Neil before switching to Andrew’s team.

“Hey, get off, get off! Traitors don’t get noogie privileges!” Neil laughed

“Hey there small-fry,” Laney smiled, after Neil had escaped her clutches.

“What’s up, beanpole,” Neil retorted, he turned to see Andrew sitting down watching this, expressionless. “And what a big help you were!”

Andrew said nothing, grabbed Neil’s hand and walked outside. All the eyes were focused on the jumbotron while the kiss-cam surveyed the crowd. It was strange seeing the crowd focusing on something that wasn’t a game.

“I've got a good feeling about today, I think we're going to pull through in the second half. Especially if we put Diyoza in as a dealer. Are you going to-” 

“No game talk until after the game. You know the rules.” Andrew reminded him.

“Oh, now you want to follow the rules.” Neil teased “What about those games where you used the information I accidentally gave you to win?” He playfully bumped Andrew lightly on the shoulder.

Neil couldn’t see Andrew’s face very well under the bulky goalie’s mask, but he knew that Andrew was wearing that stupid half-smirk/smile he did when he was enjoying making fun of Neil “The complete coincidences where my team just happened to know your line up had nothing to do with me.” Andrew rocked back on his heels “and hypothetically, if they did have anything to do with me, which they don’t, it would be your stupid fault anyway. Hypothetically.”

“Wise-ass,”

“Junkie,”

There was a comfortable lull in conversation where Neil and Andrew tried very hard to look like bitter rivals who hated each other to the core for the press. They took off their helmets to breathe a little more.

“Who's feeding the cats?” Neil asked, changing the subject.

“Beth,” Andrew said simply.

Neil scrunched up his nose. “Ew, Beth,”

“You only hate her because King likes her better than you,” Andrew observed.

Neil rolled his eyes. “You’re one to talk, you only like her because her stress-baking helps you completely disregard your diet on a regular basis,”

“Only on cheat day,” Andrew reminds him.

Neil looked at him. Unimpressed. “You have cheat day every day,”

Andrew shrugged. “Not my fault Beth has a hectic college schedule,”

Neil laughed “I wouldn't be surprised if you bribed her professors to keep her working,”

Andrew didn't respond. He was looking at the jumbotron. Neil turned to see what was so interesting. On it were two figures conversing on a bench. One of the figures was short and muscular, while the other was slightly taller and leaner

“Andrew. I might be wrong here, but I think we’re on the kiss-cam.” Neil observed.

“It would seem so.” Andrew said. “Yes or no?”

Neil grinned. “Well, this is going to drive PR crazy.”

Andrew drew back “So no?”

Neil’s grin widened and leaned in. “Are you kidding? I love driving PR crazy!” He said.

“So yes?” Andrew clarified looking impassive, but also slightly, almost imperceptibly, pleased.

Meanwhile, the voices of the crowd converged to create one deafening roar commanding them to  _ KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS! _

“So yes.” Neil confirmed, and closed the distance between them.

The crowd was still cheering, but Neil didn’t hear them. No matter how many times he kissed Andrew, he grew more certain every time that he would never grow tired of it. The kiss itself was brief, chaste, and all-in-all not much of a show (they did have an image to keep up after all), but it was soft anyway, tender anyway, proof of how much they loved each other anyway. Neil was spending his eighth anniversary kissing his boyfriend in public and it felt like what being on top of Mount Everest must have felt like.

“Happy Eighth,” Neil whispered as he pulled away.

“It’s the Sixteenth,” Andrew replied. Neil rolled his eyes and put his helmet back on.

They both ran back to their respective locker rooms.

“All right, I just got us a shit-ton of publicity so I expect Diyoza on the line up.” Neil called as he entered the locker room.

“If I go kiss my girlfriend on the kiss-cam, can I 

Neil grinned and got ready to play.

* * *

 

The next day, Neil woke up in his hotel room to his phone pinging. Strange, it wasn't the ever present buzz he usually got when he caused a media scandal. He got out of bed, careful not to wake Andrew, and moved to open his laptop. The sun hadn’t rose yet, but it would soon.

_ Well, time to face the music. _

While his laptop turned on, Neil scrolled through his phone. Some congratulations from Dan and Matt, some tips from Kevin, several unintelligible texts from Nicky, though Neil was sure they were positive, and a whole slew of links from Allison.

Neil clicked through them one caught his eye. _ Sparks Fly… Or Not? Why the Minyard-Josten Rivalry is Still Going strong. _

What? Neil clicked on it and skimmed it. It said the kiss… was just because the crowd was egging them on. 

“Ha.” Neil muttered. He clicked another one of the article. Then another. Then another.

Each article had new and different points to bring to the argument, but every article agreed on one thing: Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard were still very much rivals.

Neil wasn't sure when his laughing woke Andrew, but the pillow that he threw at Neil's face only made him laugh louder. 

“What is it.”

Neil laughed some more and Andrew frowned.

“What,”

Neil wanted to explain what was so funny but he couldn't talk through bouts of laughter. He gestured haplessly to the computer screen and Andrew looked at it for a few seconds. For about a minute there was only the sound of Neil’s laughter. Then a soft chuckle chimed in as well. Andrew was laughing. His chuckle rolled into harder laughs, deep-full body laughs.

This, of course, only made Neil laugh harder.

“‘ _ It could be said _ ’,” Andrew read through his laughter. “‘ _ That their kiss is proof that Minyard and Josten don’t in fact despise each other. However, when the circumstances are considered, it is clear to see that Andrew Minyard and Neil Josten are not, and have never been anything except bitter rivals. _ ’ Oh my god”

Finally, Neil and Andrew calmed down. Then Andrew looked at Neil and set him off again, which set Andrew off, and they were laughing their heads off all over again.

When Neil finally finished laughing, he found Andrew looking at him with a soft smile on his face.

“What?” Neil asked.

“Marry me,” Andrew said, and Neil’s world came to a stop.

“Yes or no,” Neil replies, because he knews Andrew couldn’t handle him saying  _ I love you  _ out loud at that moment.

Andrew breathed out a  _ yes _ and Neil pressed  _ I love you _ into his lips, Neil traced  _ I love you _ into his back, Neil gave Andrew  _ I love you _ with every inch of his body.

When they finally pulled up for air, tangled in the sheets and illuminated by the rising sun, Neil couldn’t help but smile.“That’s a yes, by the way, to the marriage thing. Yes, I’ll marry you. Obviously.”

“Obviously.” Andrew repeated. A little like he didn’t believe what Neil was saying, a little like he was making fun of Neil’s earnestness. Neil shook his head and pressed a soft kiss to Andrew’s temple.

Neil rested his head on Andrew’s bare chest and if Andrew held Neil a little tighter than he usually did, Neil didn’t mention it

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this! I hope you enjoyed my exhaustion-addled ramblings.
> 
> Kudos and Comments sustain me, so if you liked this fic, please give me the sweet sweet validation I crave


End file.
